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The Wolves
The Wolves was a professional wrestling tag team of Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards. They wrestled for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) where they are former two time tag team champions and in Ring of Honor (ROH) and Squared Circle Wrestling (2CW), where they have won the Tag Team Championships of both companies. The two started out as members of Larry Sweeney's alliance Sweet N' Sour Inc but forged a tag team on their own. As well as being a tag team unit, the two wrestlers have had strong singles careers, with Edwards being ROH's first World Television Champion and Richards chasing the ROH World Championship. They were originally managed by Shane Hagadorn when they portrayed villainous characters, but later abandoned him to become fan favourites. History Ring of Honor On the hunt (2008–2009) In April 2008, Eddie Edwards joined Sweet N' Sour Inc and later in June, Davey Richards attacked his No Remorse Corps teammate Roderick Strong to join the group. Despite being part of the group, the two teamed together for the first time on 27 September in England as part of the independent wrestling supercard, Eve of Indypendence against the Briscoe Brothers. It would not be until Boxing Day that Edwards and Richards formally wrestled as the American Wolves, unveiled by Sweeney and accompanied by him, competing in a Three-Way Elimination Tag Team match at All-Star Extravaganza IV. Though they eliminated the European Union (Nigel McGuinness and Claudio Castagnoli), they lost the match after a Jaydrilla from the Briscoe Brothers. The following day at ROH's annual Final Battle event they teamed with Go Shiozaki on behalf of Sweet N' Sour Inc only to lose again to Strong, Brent Albright and Erick Stevens in a Street Fight at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Later in the evening, the team attacked the Briscoe Brothers, handcuffing Jay to the ropes while attacking Mark as a storyline cover for an injury he had suffered. ROH World Tag Team Champions Kevin Steen and El Generico came to the Briscoes' aid, with Strong and Albright also helping conquer the Wolves. The team picked up their first wins in January 2009, beating Strong twice with different partners, Stevens and Jay Briscoe. This earned them a match for the Tag Team Championship against Kevin Steen and El Generico in the main event of Motor City Madness. During the match Sweeney tried to attack Kevin Steen with his boot, but Albright chased him to the back and the champions retained. Two months later, accompanied by stablemate Chris Hero in a Six-Man Tag match they beat Steen and Generico who had Bobby Dempsey on their tea and earned themselves another championship match at Seventh Anniversary Show. Before then, on 14 March, the Wolves attacked Steen's knee at Insanity Unleashed after a title defence; Generico distracted them later in the night causing them to lose their match. On 21 March at the anniversary show, the title match was given a no-disqualification stipulation. During the match Steen sought revenge for his knee injury and attacked Richards' knee with a chair before making him submit to the Sharpshooter. After the match the Wolves, with the help of Shane Hagadorn and Sara Del Rey from Sweet N' Sour Inc, tied Steen to the ropes and attacked Generico, putting him through a table. With the rivalry escalating, the American Wolves began mocking Steen and Generico on ROH's new weekly television programme Ring of Honor Wrestling, until Steen put their manager Hagadorn through a table. This set up the show's first championship match on 10 April (airing on delay 30 May), with the Wolves finally winning the ROH Tag Team Championship in a Tables Are Legal Tag Team match. Tag Team Champions (2009–2010) Having become the new ROH Tag Team Champions, the American Wolves made their first title defence on 18 April in a match Pro Wrestling Torch rated as the best American independent circuit match of 2009. Defending against former and future ROH World Champions Bryan Danielson and Tyler Black, respectively, the match saw the Wolves working smoothly as a team to combat Danielson and Black's individual prowess ending with the first time-limit draw in an ROH tag team match. Later that month, El Generico underwent a MRI scan that revealed he would need to take time off with a knee injury caused by the Wolves. This led to Steen chosing Jay Briscoe and later Danielson as his partners in a failed attempt to win back the championships. Finally on 13 June, Generico and Steen had their rematch for the championships in a Submission match at Manhattan Mayhem III with Generico tapping out to a half-Boston Crab. Later that month Steen and Generico beat the Wolves in a Last Chance Contendership match, giving them a final chance to win back the belts at ROH's premiere event of the year Glory By Honor VIII: The Final Countdown. The night before, Edwards wrestled lost an Anything Goes match to Steen and broke his elbow but still defended the championship the following night. Because of the length and intensity of the rivalry, it was decided that their final match would be only the second Ladder War in Ring of Honor. During the match, Hagadorn once again handcuffed Kevin Steen to the ropes while the Wolves focussed on Generico. After Generico freed Steen, tables were used along with ladders and the match ended with Edwards applying a half-Boston Crab to Generico through the ladder while Richards climbed over his partner to retrieve the belts. With one rivalry settled, another one quickly reopened as Mark Briscoe had returned from the injury given to him at Final Battle 2008. A week before Glory By Honor VIII, the Briscoes defeated the Wolves but only by disqualification, by which titles do not change hands. Due to Edwards' broken elbow, the rematch was delayed until ROH's first live pay-per-view (PPV) event, Final Battle 2009. Despite Edwards feigning a reinjured arm, the Wolves lost the match and their titles to the Briscoes, ending their 253-day reign after nine successful defences. Going into 2010, the Wolves faced The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) on the 8 February episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling for a rematch against the Briscoes but lost. Through their manager, Shane Hagadorn, they teamed with the Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli) who he also managed, to defeat the Briscoe Brothers and The Young Bucks at SoCal Showdown. They went on to have a championship match with the Briscoes in the main event of From The Ashes, which they lost. Splitting from the pack (2010–2012) After this, the two wrestlers began to compete more as solo wrestlers, emphasised by both men entering the tournament for ROH's newly created ROH World Television Championship for their Ring of Honor Wrestling show. Both Richards and Edwards made it through the three-round tournament and into the final against each other, with Edwards defeating Richards to become the inaugural champion. Richards, meanwhile, earned himself into contendership for the ROH World Championship by entering the Pick 6 rankings with a win at April's The Big Bang! PPV. He used this championship opportunity at the next PPV in July, Death Before Dishonor VIII during which Hagadorn tried to attack his opponent with a chair but Richards declined his help and sent him to the back. Once again, on the 16 August episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling, Richards refused Hagadorn's help in a contendership match for Roderick Strong's World Title opportunity and lost while dealing with his manager. Tension mounted through the rest of the year on Ring of Honor Wrestling, with Hagadorn taking responsibility for Richards' previous success and trying to control who Edwards defended his World Television Championship against. This led to an in-ring confrontation on 1 November where Richards started attacking Hagadorn only to have the Kings of Wrestling save him before Edwards joined in the fray. This led to a rivalry between the Wolves and the Kings of Wrestling, exacerbated at the Survival of the Fittest 2010 tournament where Edwards defeated Hero in the first round but dislocated his shoulder. Due to this injury he was taken to the back in the final round; after Castagnoli eliminated three wrestlers, Edwards returned and helped Kenny King eliminate Castagnoli before eliminating King himself to win the competition and a future ROH World Championship match. On March 19, 2011 at Manhattan Mayhem IV, Edwards defeated defending champion Roderick Strong to win the ROH World Championship for the first time. At ROH Best in the World 2011 Richards defeated Edwards to win the ROH World Championship for the first time. Reunion and Tag Team Champions (2012-2013) The American Wolves reunited on December 16, 2012, at Final Battle 2012: Doomsday, where they defeated Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly in a tag team match. Following their win, the American Wolves received a shot at the ROH World Tag Team Championship, but were defeated by the defending champions, the Briscoe Brothers, on January 18, 2013. At All Star Extravaganza V the American Wolves defeated the Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero) to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship for the second time. They lost the title to reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) on August 17. On September 20 at Death Before Dishonor XI, the American Wolves unsuccessfully challenged the Forever Hooligans for New Japan Pro Wrestling's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. The American Wolves' run in ROH came to an end on November 30, when Richards announced he had parted ways with the promotion. Other promotions (2010-2013) After being awarded Wrestling Observer's Tag Team of the Year award for 2009, other promotions sought out the Wolves in 2010. In March, German promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) held an event in Philadelphia and the Wolves were given a match for the wXw World Tag Team Championship. They lost to reigning champions The Switchblade Conspiracy (Jon Moxley and Sami Callihan). They were also invited to Squared Circle Wrestling (2CW) on 2 April to compete for the 2CW Tag Team Championship. At Living On The Edge they defeated the encumbent champions, Up In Smoke (Cheech and Cloudy) to start their reign. After holding the championship for four months, at Live Or Let Die on 22 August, they lost the championship to The Olsen Twins (Colin Delaney and Jimmy Olsen). On January 1, 2011 The American Wolves came to Insanity Pro Wrestling (IPW) for "Showdown In Naptown" to face the Irish Airborne of Dave and Jake Crist in a loosing effort. After the match Richards got on the mic congratulating the Irish Airborne on the victory, Davey then says that maybe it was time for them to return to ROH for a rematch. On 1 February 2011, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) announced that the American Wolves would be taking part in the promotion's DDT4 tournament on 4 March, which would also be Edwards' debut for the promotion. In the first round of the tournament the American Wolves defeated the RockNES Monsters (Johnny Goodtime and Johnny Yuma), before losing in the semifinals of the tournament to The Young Bucks. On November 18, 2013, Edwards and Richards began a week-long tryout with WWE at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. Three days later, they made their WWE NXT debut, losing to NXT Tag Team Champions The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor) in a non-title match, while billed as "The American Pitbulls" of Derek Billington (Richards) and John Cahill (Edwards). Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2014-2017) On January 16, 2014, Edwards and Richards appeared on the first week of Genesis special of Impact Wrestling as The Wolves. As part of their debut storyline, they revealed they had signed contracts with a new investor in TNA in a backstage segment with Dixie Carter. On January 30, the Wolves revealed this investor to be MVP. The Wolves made their in-ring debut in a six-man tag team match, teaming with Samoa Joe to defeat The BroMans (Jessie Godderz and Robbie E) and Zema Ion. On February 23, 2014, The Wolves won the TNA World Tag Team Championship for the first time by defeating The BroMans. After a week-long reign, The Wolves lost the championship back to The BroMans at Wrestle-1's Kaisen: Outbreak event in Tokyo, Japan in a three-way match, which also included Team 246 (Kaz Hayashi and Shuji Kondo). On April 27 at the Sacrifice pay-per-view, The Wolves regained the championship by defeating Robbie E, Godderz, and DJ Z in a two-on-three handicap match. On June 15, 2014, at Slammiversary XII The Wolves competed in six-way ladder match for TNA X Division Championship, which was won by Sanada. On June 26, 2014, at Destination X, The Wolves defeated The Hardys to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championships. The Wolves returned to Wrestle-1 on July 6, successfully defending the TNA World Tag Team Championship against the Junior Stars (Koji Kanemoto and Minoru Tanaka), At the Impact Wrestling tapings on September 19, Edwards and Richards lost the championship to James Storm and Abyss. In wrestling *'Finishing moves' **Double foot stomp to an opponent's back (Edwards) followed by a Diving double foot stomp (Richards) – 2012–present **Elevated cutter **Superkick (Edwards) into a German suplex (Richards) *'Signature moves' **Edwards military press drops an opponent into a lifting kick to the opponent's gut by Richards **Powerbomb (Edwards) / Double knee backbreaker (Richards) combination *'Managers' **Larry Sweeney **Sara Del Rey **Shane Hagadorn * Entrance Themes ** "Clutch" by Barrie Gledden & Andrew Peacock (ROH) ** "Force Of Nature" by Dale Oliver (TNA) Championships and accomplishments *'Pro Wrestling Illustrated' **PWI ranked Edwards #'37' of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2010 **PWI ranked Richards #'32' of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2010 *'Ring of Honor' **ROH World Championship (2 times) – Edwards (1), Richards (1) **ROH World Tag Team Championship (2 times) **ROH World Television Championship (1 time) – Edwards **Survival of the Fittest (2010) – Edwards *'Squared Circle Wrestling' **2CW Tag Team Championship (1 time) *'Total Nonstop Action Wrestling' **TNA World Tag Team Championship (5 times) ** EC3 Invitational (2014) *'Wrestling Observer Newsletter' **Tag Team of the Year (2009) External links * Profile Category:2017 disbandments Category:Independent promotions teams and stables Category:Ring of Honor teams and stables Category:ROH World Tag Team Champions Category:Total Nonstop Action Wrestling teams and stables Category:TNA World Tag Team Champions Category:2008 debuts Category:Teams and stables